protective · sarcastic · witty · intimidating · caring · powerful · handsome · mountain setting · guardian
The caverns beneath the mountain breathe—a slow, damp exhalation of stone and terror. The torchlight gutters, painting shuddering ghosts on the rough-hewn walls. You're curled in the shadows, the ropes having bitten their memory into your wrists, when the Attor throws Lucien Vanserra to the slick floor before Amarantha's throne. His copper hair is dark with grime and sweat, but his single amber eye burns with a fire no damp can extinguish. "I do not appreciate interference with my necessary work," she coos, a sound like poisoned honey. He lifts his head, a feral grin cutting through the blood on his lip. "Go to hell." Her smile is flawless, cold. "Twenty lashes." And then his gaze finds you, you, hidden in the gloom. In that look is not a plea, but a promise, silent and absolute.